


why'd you waste all the time back and forth in my mind?

by thefavourite



Series: my favorite lyrics series [1]
Category: Dead Poets Society (1989)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Everyone Is Gay, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/F, Gen, I Want That Twink Obliterated, Lesbian Ginny, M/M, Protective Older Brothers, Trans Chris, Trans Todd, [mariah carey voice] i don't know her!, actually everyone is a stoner, as a treat, bi charlie, broadway director chris, broadway star ginny, broadway star neil, chris and todd do be best friends tho, disk jockey pitts, enby charlie, everyone has awful parents except literally knox meeks and pitts, gay meeks, gay neil, gay todd, ginny and neil are each other's beards, jeff anderson is a bicon, knox and charlie can have a little angsty on-and-off relationship, lesbian chris, nuwanda is a stage name, pan knox, pan pitts, scientist meeks, screenwriter knox, stand-up comedian charlie, stick and spaz are musicians, stoner charlie, todd and chris are each other's beards, trans knox, two bros chilling at a bachelor party five feet apart cause they're not gay, wedding singer todd, who's cameron?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:07:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24024058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thefavourite/pseuds/thefavourite
Summary: "New ways to spend all my time.Some's gone, and some doesn't feel right.I need a new place to stay and I don't think I'mgonna find it. You say you want, but never will.Just take me back and tell me no. It's easierto be alone than 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰."- Wallows, 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘖𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘙𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵The extent of desire reaches far beyond attainable when Todd Anderson, Charlie Dalton and Chris Noel decide to crash their best friends' wedding festivities.
Relationships: Charlie Dalton/Knox Overstreet, Ginny Danbury/Chris Noel, Ginny Danbury/Neil Perry, Jeffrey Anderson/Original Male Character, OFC/OFC, OMC/OMC, Steven Meeks/Gerard Pitts, Stick/Spaz, Todd Anderson/Chris Noel, Todd Anderson/Neil Perry
Series: my favorite lyrics series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1732972
Kudos: 16





	why'd you waste all the time back and forth in my mind?

It is a little past 4:00 pm on a Wednesday when the group forms their plan.

Surprisingly, Charlie Dalton follows up Todd Anderson's slightest inkling of a thought with the loudest laughter in the room.

"Oh, puh- _lease_!" they exclaim, an overwhelming aroma of stale liquor rolling off their tongue as they cackle. "You don't have the balls -" they pause ever-so-briefly to pass a knowing gaze off to both Todd and the presently-glaring Chris Noel. "Neither of you. And that was _not_ a direct hit on you, Chris."

Chris snidely snickers, shooting Charlie a venomous glare as if to say _if ya had to say it, then it probably_ was _a hit on me_.

"You're cross-faded," Chris doesn't spare a look towards Charlie. "And you're preaching...to us."

To an outsider's eye, this trio are probably the most unlikely clan in the world to push themselves together and shift into tight-knit best friends. However, only a short while after their meeting, the group discovered that they were _made_ for each other. They functioned so perfectly, in a strong sense of harmony and perfection that other social circles would _die_ for. And by their sophomore year of college and second year of knowing each other, it was then achingly obvious that their reliance on one another was growing thicker than they had ever imagined, as Todd and Chris came to a binding agreement after painstakingly coming out to each other, along with Charlie, who they themself revealed that they were bisexual and non-binary; as Chris had first told him, _you cover for me being a lesbian, I cover for you being gay._ It had been an unspoken rule amongst their tiny social circle for three years, ever since that fateful day - _unless we are around folks we can trust, Todd and Chris are in love._

Well, they had absolutely no present issues maintaining that facade until an azure-tinted, steamy afternoon in late May during their junior year, in which the duo were introduced, by Charlie, to theatrical prodigies Neil Perry and Ginny Danbury.

It was already a heavy enough weight on both Todd _and_ Chris to have parents who were constantly keeping them under their thumbs for being trans, but now...THIS?

* * *

"Ah, so you're the famous Todd!" the bright-eyed boy exclaimed, clasping the Anderson teenager's softened hand so warmly Todd could have dissolved on the _spot_. "So nice to meet you. I'm Neil. Perry. But you probably know that by now."

In turn, Todd chuckled - for once, it was a genuine one, not like a brief sound effect he would often choke out to seem polite.

"Indeed," like a switch, he flickered his gaze over to the silently pleasant blonde standing beside him. "And this is my g-girl _friend_ , Chris."

The words felt like they had been ejected from the depths of Todd's throat. So Chris, being as observant as she was, quickly took the reins from him.

"And you must be Ginny." She sweetly greeted the woman, somehow just barely reaching the brunette's heightened line of vision. Almost instinctively, a chill birthed itself from her waist and hoisted up her spine, greeting the nape of her neck with a cooled snap.

Sure, Charlie could easily be as slimy and conniving as they longed to become. However, their intentions in throwing two of their seemingly completely-contrasting social circles together were nothing short of utterly sweet. Perhaps their assumptions of soft-spoken art-centric kids bonding together were a bit _too_ on the nose, as the relationships evolved over time. But Charlie subconsciously patted themself on the back for what was nearly one-hundred solid days of meet-ups, mixers and general college get-togethers. Well, that was all it was, until their fateful day in early autumn of their final year at college.

━━━

"Charlie!" Neil had softly called over to them, his eyes sparkling with a fine mixture of energy and whatever the hell type of white wine Welton University had to toss at students during these art major-focused mixers. "Hey, man, get over here. There's someone I want ya to meet."

Sighing deeply, Charlie stared up from where they had been blissfully planted and dryly observing a piece of the school's "retro abstract art," along with one of their newer friends, Noah "Stick" Stickler, a timid and thoughtful junior.

Almost always, being introduced to one of Neil's friends was a memorable and euphoric (well, to say the _least_ about it) experience. Through him, Charlie had met Ginny, science wiz duo Steven Meeks and Gerard Pitts, Stick and the unfortunately-perceived Neville "Spaz" Longfellow, among others. Being one of Neil's closest pals since kindergarten was one thing, but becoming acquitted with his far-too-fascinating clans of companions was another. Needless to say, Charlie was not exactly in the mood for this type of event. Wordlessly, they inhaled a clump of oxygen and passed Stick a small _I'll be back_ gesture before picking up their feet and shoving themself towards where Neil had positioned himself and Todd.

"Charlie, this is Knox Overstreet," the Perry man stated so simply, yet so perfectly clearly. "Knox, this is Charlie Dalton."

Passing their gaze upwards, the young adult thought a miracle had formed above their very own eyes as they passed looks with an _angel_. 

"Hi, Charlie!" Heaven Boy - or, err...Knox - sounded like he had sweetener dripping off of his tongue with every letter. "Neil has told me so much about you."

Charlie did not even need to hear another word — they passed out.

* * *

"Todd is speaking with his _mind_ for once, though," Chris defends. "You're just a _bitch_ , Dalton."

Interactions like this are one of the central reasons as to why the group functions so well. They are practically a family - with Todd and Chris being the platonic parents and Charlie serving as their rambunctious child. However, with them, the gender roles have been switched up and altered on their heads with Todd playing the motherly peacemaker, causing Chris to shift herself into the stern, orderly father. Chris is certainly in the right at this moment, though. Ever since they knew him, it seemed, Todd had fought, lived and reasoned through/with his heart. He is not one for logic when it comes to his emotions. However, he just _knows_ he is right about this one.

"Well, sorry, Anderson," Charlie has a very present, easily-noticeable layer of empathy underlying their voice. "You know I love Knox, but...I can't. I just _can't_."

The tone in the room abruptly falls limp as the corners of the brunette's mouth tug downwards into a painful frown.

Even though Todd and Chris were able to easily keep up their little act with their family, no questions asked, for Neil and Ginny it was not quite so... _simple_. Eventually, their scarily eagle-eyed parents caught on to the thinly-veiled facade, and to prove a point, pushed them both _harder_ and _further_ to "advance" their relationship. With each of them crumbling under the weights, they were granted an ultimatum - get married or reveal your truths, be exiled, disowned and abandoned by your families. So, naturally, they feared the latter so very deeply that they agreed to a life of deception and repression, leaving Todd and Chris absolutely crushed.

But for Knox and Charlie, it was different...really, _really_ different. Knox's moms, Martha and Eileen, were compassionate and just-protective-enough, so he could have requested a "simple" bank load for one million-plus dollars and they probably would have granted him both that _and_ bright grins in return. Not only that, but the two women absolutely adored Charlie, and would often push out offhand, yet loving, bright comments to the couple, such as "when's the wedding?", or "would you guys like the _guest bedroom_ together tonight?" And the poor Dalton child, who had bounced around from relative to relative until they were five and were taken in by their workaholic aunt and uncle, was practically _adopted_ by the Overstreets until the day they and Knox called it quits for the first time. (That's right - _the first time_. There were, maybe, six other occasions in which this happened over the course of roughly two years.) 

"Wait, holy shit!" something seems to have _popped!_ straight into Chris's mind as her lips twist into an uptick, her entire face glowing in self-satisfaction. "Knox is Neil's best man."

" _Huh_?"

"Ya heard me."

"Knox Thomas Overstreet, the love of _my life_ ," Charlie's statement is so vastly exaggerated that you almost could not detect the sincerity in the very back of their tone if you did not know them. "Is endorsing _this_? Are we _in he_ _ll_?"

"He's probably just covering for Neil..." Todd simply mutters.

"True, but like," Chris launches into a statement. "Who _cares_ if he is or not? Charlie, this is your chance. You could, well, confess to him."

This was _it_ \- Chris's big push to rope Charlie into their plans. Everyone who was not Knox had known that, on the night of Neil and Ginny's thoroughly turbulent engagement party, Charlie had planned out an _entire_ grand romantic gesture to make amends in their and Knox's wild, wonderful ride of an on-again-off-again relationship by tying up the loose ends and uttering those three luminous words, _I love you._ It had been like everyone just knew Knox and Charlie loved each other, except for them. But after sleepless nights filled with lazed hand-jobs, sloppy makeout sessions and pointless, two-person spin the bottle tournaments, a shit-faced Charlie had realized. Of course, everyone around them were like - _no fucking shit!_ Well, and then...Charlie allowed the evening to lag past them and spent so much time procrastinating that Knox left the party - _with Stick._

"WAIT!" Charlie exclaimed, something miraculous softening their stiffened gaze. "HOLY SHIT, TODDY. Wonderwall."

**Author's Note:**

> hope u guys like this so far!! this chapter is shorter than the others will be, as it serves as an introduction. here is everyone's relationship status as of now, just for reference:
> 
> \- todd: semi-single (in love/sleeping with neil)  
> \- charlie: on-and-off with knox (currently, off)  
> \- chris: semi-single (in love/sleeping with ginny)  
> \- neil: platonically engaged to ginny (in love/sleeping with todd)  
> \- ginny: platonically engaged to ginny (in love/sleeping with chris)  
> \- knox: on-and-off with charlie (currently, off) (sleeping with stick)  
> also, meeks and pitts are longtime boyfriends
> 
> send any and all feedback or questions you may have, if ya want!!! love y'all. <3


End file.
